Ethics Panel Exonerates Legislator As Vote Nears

October 26, 2002|By Sean Mussenden Tallahassee Bureau

TALLAHASSEE — Florida's Commission on Ethics cleared House Speaker Tom Feeney on Friday of accusations that he used his powerful elected office to benefit a private legal client -- allegations that have dogged his campaign for Congress.

The decision comes less than two weeks before voters in parts of Orange, Seminole, Volusia and Brevard counties choose between the Oviedo Republican and Altamonte Springs Democrat Harry Jacobs, who has focused his District 24 race on attacking Feeney's ethics.

"It takes all the air out of the game plan they've been running from day one," said Feeney, dismissing the ethics charges as a partisan complaint designed to derail his election.

Feeney has been a registered local government lobbyist and lawyer for Yang Enterprises, an Oviedo software firm. Dick Martinez, a Volusia County Democratic party official, accused him of interceding for Yang in a dispute over an $8 million state contract and helping the company lobby for more state work.

The commission voted unanimously that there was "no probable cause" that Feeney violated a state law preventing legislators from representing private clients before state agencies.

Jacobs and Martinez said the decision proved nothing, contending that Feeney had political ties to several members of the ethics commission and that state ethics investigators ignored documents that showed company executives dropped Feeney's name with state officials while he was on the company payroll.

Feeney did not attend the hearing in Tallahassee. Instead, he sent his Orlando law partner Michael O'Quinn to represent him before the nine-member commission. One member had been appointed by Feeney as speaker and contributed to his congressional campaign, while another co-hosted a Feeney fund-raiser.

Ethics commission chairman Patrick Neal, an appointee of former Senate President Toni Jennings, recused himself after telling members he co-hosted a fund-raiser for Feeney's congressional campaign in Manatee County. Neal said he and his wife donated $1,000 to Feeney's campaign.

Orlando businessman Richard "Dick" Spears, a Feeney appointee to the commission, told members that, like Neal, he had contributed to Feeney's campaign -- $250, according to records. Unlike Neal, he told his colleagues he did not feel a need to recuse himself.